Double Murder in Camalote: Infamous Russell Hyde is Taken Down by Gunmen

Russell Hyde

There were four brutal murders over the weekend. One in the City, another in Teakettle and the most sensational double murder occurred at a feeder road in Camalote also in the west. The dreaded Russell Hyde and his girlfriend, hair braider Marcy Humes were shot multiple times at about nine-thirty on Friday night. She died shortly after at the Western Regional Hospital, while Hyde’s body was found with gunshot wounds to the back, jaw and neck.  Hyde was at the heart of an ongoing dispute in which at least eleven family members have suffered violent deaths since May of 2015, but police are still perplexed over the motive. So to say the underworld Roaring Creek figure was a marked man, would not be an understatement. Hyde, Humes and a third person had arrived at his farm, when three men opened fire on them. The third person, however, fled the scene and survived the bloodbath, but has not been located. Duane Moody has the following report.

Marcy Humes

Duane Moody, Reporting

After several years and as many attempts made on his life, tonight, Roaring Creek’s so-called crime boss, Russell Hyde, is dead. The forty-five year old businessman and his twenty-eight year old companion Marcy Humes were killed on his farm near Society Hall, Camalote Village on Friday night. Along with a third person, Hyde and Humes were ambushed by at least three gunmen—who were dressed in dark clothes and carrying flashlights—as they drove up to Russell’s house.

Insp. Stephanie Grinage, Deputy O.C., Belmopan Police

“In a feeder road, the residence of Mister Russell Hyde, we observed one female with apparent gunshot wounds to the chest area and the leg. She was transported to the Western Regional Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. A search of the immediate area, we found the body of Russell Hyde, apparently dead and he was transported to the Western Regional Hospital also and he was officially pronounced dead.”

Alvin Hyde Sr.

Alvin Hyde Sr., Father of Russell Hyde

“The young man who was along with him, which was the third person, I think he give information more or less say that when dehn drove up by the house, ih tell Russell, ih see three persons ina dark clothes di come. Ih say make we run. But Russell neva run, but he start to run. And after when dehn mussi attack him, he start to run and dehn shoot ahn ina the back.”

Mike Rudon

“And that’s when dehn shot both Russell and the lady…”

Alvin Hyde Sr.

“Dehn shot Russell ina the back and after ih drop ih look like dehn gone finish him ina ih face.”

Arlette Patnett

The gunmen then reportedly turned their weapons on a screaming Humes and ended her life. The well-known hair-braider in the village was not a troublemaker, but was caught up with the wrong person.

Arlette Patnett, Sister of Marcy Humes

“By the time we reached the hospital, she was already dead. She got seven shots; one first in the leg and then a lot in the stomach area. But the main one is right above her breast that the doctor claim killed her.”

Rosalie Galvez

While he would meet a vicious end on Friday night at his residence; in the past three months, there have been a string of murders associated to Russell Hyde. On May seventeenth, his common-law wife, forty-three-year-old Rosalie Galvez, was fatally shot in the head as she travelled in a black Toyota truck. She was in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven at the time by Hyde when the vehicle was sprayed by a gunman.

Russell Hyde, Common-law Husband (File: May 17^th, 2015)

“Upon reaching the curve before Guanacaste Park, one gunman come out and fired shots and it hit my wife. I pick up more speed and I took her to the hospital and I took her to the hospital and shortly after I reach…emm.”

Charles Galvez

Charles Galvez, Brother of Rosalie Galvez (File: May 17^th, 2015)

“I knew right away, looking at her seeing her I knew she wouldn’t have made it. I know that the doctors and the nurses at the hospital tried their best. I saw what they were doing in the emergency room. I am very much appreciative of their efforts and she succumbed shortly after. She didn’t even get an opportunity to get into the ambulance as it was a serious injury because of the shots.”

Exactly one week later, Hyde’s lieutenant was reported missing and on May twenty-sixth, the body of twenty-eight-year-old Edilberto Madrid was retrieved from the Belize River off the Valley of Peace Road.

Edilberto Madrid

Madrid had been butchered—decapitated, disemboweled and dismembered. Within twenty-four hours, another dismembered body – that of fifty-one-year-old Roaring Creek resident, Steven “Deeds” Hyde, was found in a shallow grave at a farm belonging to Hyde in Camalote. Steven, who was his cousin, lived on the farm where his body was found.

Voice of: Niece of Murder Victim (File: May 27^th, 2015)

“They found his body with missing hands, missing feet, but they found all his pieces in a shallow grave already buried.”

Steven “Deeds” Hyde

Mike Rudon

“Now can you give me an idea. There was a murder; they found a body in a similar condition just yesterday. What’s the connection between the two men?”

Voice of: Niece of Murder Victim

“Well the connection there…Steven Hyde and “Dudes,” they were best friends and they were associates with Russell Hyde. At the time, they were hanging out with Russell Hyde.”

Starlette Pitts & Michael Kelly Jr.

But, as Roaring Creek reeled in the wake of the bloodbath, Russell and two others were detained by police as suspects in the string of murders. They were later released. Nonetheless, it appeared that the ongoing feud did not let up and three weeks ago, on August eleventh, Russell’s sister, niece and her boyfriend were viciously killed at their South West Street Home in Lehigh Acres, Florida. Dorla Pitts, Starlette Pitts and Michael Kelly Junior were reportedly killed by Brian Hyde – a cousin of Russell, who had been living with them for seven months. But was Brian a sleeper cell, activated in the wake of the homicides back in Belize?

Duane Moody

“Sir, we understand that a relative is currently in detention and is being questioned on the triple murder in the US. Does this come as a shock to you or even like a stab in the back that it is one of your own people, one of your own relatives that could be the perpetrator in this crime?”

Dorla Pitts

Alvin Hyde Sr. (File: August 12^th, 2015)

“Well it come as a shock because I couldn’t believe that…which in we noh sure as yet and it is just rumors that we hear. So I wouldn’t put it to such a big consideration because I noh know if dah he do it. But I hear on the news.”

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

“At this present time, we cannot establish if this is connected to those crimes that occurred, but our investigation continues and we are looking at all angles at this time to see if there is any connection in this crime.”

Alvin Hyde Jr.

In three months, eleven persons directly related to Russell Hyde have been murdered. According to the eldest brother, Alvin Hyde Junior, of the thirteen siblings; only six, five brothers and one sister, remain alive. Six died from violent crimes, while one perished in a fatal accident.

Alvin Hyde Jr., Brother of Russell Hyde

“Things happen. It happens among the family…like my lee sister the last time. It happened around my family. It started with my second brother, John; he got shot on BelCan Bridge. Then who else, I think it was George Michael…he got shot in Succotz; he was shot by police. And then there was James Hyde and then from there, Randalph. Like I say, each one of us have we own life weh we live and we carry on with we life. The reason why this happen, I can’t say.”

But around nine-thirty p.m. on Friday and days after the burial of his sister and niece, Russell was murdered. Humes, who was reportedly romantically involved with Russell, was killed and one person got away. But where is he and is he cooperating with police?

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

Insp. Stephanie Grinage

“We haven’t established a motive in these murders. We are looking for one person, a witness in connection with this murder who was with Russell Hyde and Miss Marcy Humes at the time of their death…who can give us more information in regards to the shooting of these individuals.”

Police have not disclosed the name of the third person with Hyde and his whereabouts are not known. But was Russell Hyde led to his death? More importantly, does the seemingly unrelenting bloodbath in Roaring Creek end with Hyde’s demise?

Alvin Hyde Sr.

“Well I personally, I noh afraid because I noh do nobody nothing. I noh have no kinda enemy that do anything. I am a person that believes in God and if yo noh do nothing, I noh think somebody could come do something fi nothing.”

Duane Moody for News Five.